Quench

[ Est. 1974 · one smith · one anvil ]

Forged once. Folded a hundred times.

Pattern-welded Damascus kitchen knives, splitting axes and garden tools — drawn out, folded, welded and quenched by hand. The pattern is the proof: no two blades leave the shop alike.

See the tools How it's made →
Layers
0
Quench oil
same since '74
Made per year
0
PLATE 01 — “nightfall” pattern 1080 & 15N20 · 256 layers

[ The forge ]

Five heats, one blade.

A knife is not cut from a bar. It is persuaded out of one — each step a colour of heat, each colour a temperature you learn by eye before you learn by thermometer.

  1. 01

    Draw out

    The billet is heated to a dull cherry and hammered long — the first commitment. Get the taper wrong here and every later heat inherits the mistake.

    ≈ 850 °C — dull cherry
  2. 02

    Fold & weld

    1080 and 15N20 are stacked, brought to welding heat and folded — seven folds doubles to two hundred and fifty-six layers. Flux keeps the scale out of the seam.

    ≈ 1300 °C — near white
  3. 03

    Shape

    Profile, bevels, tang. The pattern is still hidden — it lives in the layers, waiting for acid to bring it up. Filework goes on the spine while the steel is still soft.

    ≈ 950 °C — orange
  4. 04

    Quench

    The heat that names the shop. Non-magnetic, then straight into warm oil — a hiss, a plume, and the steel locks hard in under two seconds. This is where blades are won or cracked.

    ≈ 815 °C → oil, ~50 °C
  5. 05

    Temper & etch

    Two low bakes pull the brittleness back out. Then a bath of dilute acid eats the softer layers a fraction faster — and the hundred folds finally surface as light and shadow.

    ≈ 200 °C — straw

[ The tools ]

Made to outlive you.

Six things worth keeping. Everything is full-tang, hand-finished and stamped with its plate number. Re-grinds are free, for as long as the shop stands.

Chef 210

£420

1080/15N20 · 61 HRC · stabilised walnut

The one that lives on the block. Thin behind the edge, heavy where it counts.

2–3 wk lead

Splitting Axe

£560

forged eye · hickory haft · linseed cured

A convex cheek that pops rounds without burying. Sharpened to split, not shave.

made to order

Paring 90

£190

1080/15N20 · 62 HRC · bog oak

Small, nimble, absurdly sharp. The knife you reach for without thinking.

in stock

Cleaver

£480

5mm spine · full flat · ebony scales

Bone, squash, everything. A blade with opinions and the mass to enforce them.

restocks aug

Hori-Hori

£150

garden knife · half-serrated · oiled ash

Dig, cut, weed, plant. The tool the shop uses to prove Damascus isn't precious.

in stock

Bar Stock

£95/bar

forged Damascus billet · 200×40×6mm

For the makers. Etched to show the pattern, ready for your own handles.

in stock

[ The smith ]

One anvil. Fifty winters.

My grandfather quenched farm tools in a bucket of oil behind this same shed. The oil has been topped up, never changed — there's fifty years of steel in it, and I'd swear it bites a little truer for it. That's not metallurgy. That's just what I believe.

I make around a hundred and forty pieces a year, which is as many as one pair of hands can make well. When I'm buried in orders I don't hire — I just make you wait. A knife you'll own for forty years can afford to take three weeks.

Everything is stamped, numbered and logged in the same ledger my grandfather started. Send a tired blade back and I'll re-grind it, re-handle it, and log the date. The shop remembers every tool it's ever made.

— R. Thorne, since 1974

[ Commission ]

Tell me what you cut.

Every commission starts with a conversation, not a catalogue. What you cook, what you split, the size of your hand. I'll draw it, quote it, and put you in the book.

  • Deposit holds your place — balance on completion
  • Photos at every heat if you want them
  • 2–8 week lead depending on the queue

Demo form — no message is sent. See the README.